‘This idea of attacking Iran is dangerous. Once you unleash a war you never know what will happen’

‘This idea of attacking Iran is dangerous. Once you unleash a war you never know what will happen’

‘This idea of attacking Iran is dangerous. Once you unleash a war you never know what will happen’

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Cameron and Obama

The special relationship: David Cameron will see Barack Obama in Washington next week. Iran’s nuclear threat will be high on the agenda

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Ardent ship

HMS Ardent: the ship sank on May 21 1982 after being bombed by Argentine jets

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Lord West

Fortunes of war: Lord West commanded
the Ardent
when she sank off the Falklands 30 years ago

The special relationship: David Cameron will see Barack Obama in Washington next week. Iran’s nuclear threat will be high on the agenda

The Political Interview: Joe Murphy talks to Lord West, one of the most senior military figures in Britain.

David Cameron must use talks with Barack Obama next week to persuade America to back away from a “dangerous” military attack on Iran, the former security minister Lord West says tonight.

In an interview with the Standard, he argued that it would be more dangerous to launch strikes now than for Iran pursue its goal of developing the nuclear bomb. “I think now we should be working very hard to get back into discussions with them [the Iranians],” he said. “One may have to accept that they will have a certain amount of enriched uranium, and that they will at some stage be able to make a bomb. I think we need to try and use other methods to try to ameliorate that and to damp down all the tensions there.” Lord West is one of Britain’s most senior military figures, with 30 years as a naval commander, six years in defence intelligence, four years as First Sea Lord and three years as a government minister overseeing combating new security threats.

There are escalating tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme, which Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu fears could annihilate his country. Britain and the US have refused to rule out military force but Lord West said the strategy had failed and must be rethought.

“I understand absolutely why everything has to be left on the table to dissuade them from developing a viable nuclear weapon, or be in a position to build one at short notice, but I think the rhetoric has probably got a bit out of hand,” he said.

“I think there is a very real danger of boxing ourselves into a position where the inevitability is actually of some form of strike against Iran.”

Even a limited attack by Israel would escalate into a wider confrontation, he argued. Iran would unite and retaliate, probably closing the economically vital Strait of Hormuz and drawing America and Britain into the conflict. “I cannot see how we could keep out,” said Lord West. “An attack on the nuclear sites would inevitably turn into something much bigger.” He added: “Once you unleash a war you never know what is going to happen.”

London’s Olympics could also become a target for reprisals. “If there was a bombing attack on Iran, I would say that would raise the risk of something happening at the Olympics quite dramatically,” said the peer, who led a major review of Olympic security in 2007.

The 63-year-old peer has long experience of the fortunes of war. In the Falklands war, 30 years ago, he commanded HMS Ardent which sank on May 21 1982 with the loss of 22 lives, after being bombed by Argentine jets. After the 9/11 attacks, he was one of the senior military commanders in the invasion of Afghanistan, a conflict that is still claiming British lives.

As details were coming in of the six servicemen killed in an explosion in Kandahar province, he paid tribute to the brilliant work of British soldiers over the past decade but criticised the way the mission had been elongated. The initial invasion was “absolutely right” and succeeded in clearing away terrorist training camps.

But it then “slipped into nation building” and became a “quagmire”. “We were amazed at the scale of the training camps and the laboratories there but we hacked them all out,” he said. “I think the mistake we made was not then getting out of it.”

He sees no value in staying a moment longer than necessary. “It gives a lovely fuzzy warm feeling that there are a lot of people in Afghanistan whose lives are better than if we had not been there, but is that the key strategic aim for Great Britain?”

A vocal critic of the Coalition’s defence cutbacks, he accused ministers of “finally hitting bone” and damaging the core capabilities of the Armed Forces.

“When they debate whether we should be doing anything in Syria — and I don’t think we should, incidentally — it’s a bit of a confidence trick for the Prime Minister to talk about it because he has cut our military so much that we are incapable of doing that,” he said. The Chancellor should raid other departments, including overseas aid spending, welfare and even the Health Department. “A tiny fraction of their budgets would make an immense difference to defence.”

He slammed the “unbelievably stupid” decision to scrap Harrier jump jets and revealed that he offered to meet new Defence Secretary Philip Hammond to advise on the replacement fleet but was declined with the explanation that the minister was “too busy”. “I’m sad if he is too busy to talk to people about these matters,” said Lord West.

He said a “cock-up” probably lay behind the controversial posting of Prince William to the Falkland Islands rather than an attempt to provoke Argentina. “Probably someone said, ‘oh yes there’s the 30th anniversary coming up and if he’s down there no other Royal will have to go down,” he said.

As for Hollywood actor Sean Penn’s recent intervention, in which he accused Britain of “archaic colonialism” in relation to the islands, Lord West was scathing. “Sean Penn, what a prat he is. What does he know about it and who cares what he thinks? It’s him revisiting the eighties because I think he was popular then. It is very dangerous when film stars start making statements about really serious issues which they know nothing about.”

He has proud memories of the 1982 task force that liberated the islands. “If a war can ever be good, then it was a good war. It was done for the right reasons.”

He tells a story of introducing an Argentine general to Margaret Thatcher after the peace. “She turned to him and just said, ‘Don’t do it again!’ then turned and walked away.” As chief of defence intelligence later, he saw proof that the episode forced the former Soviet Union to reapprise Britain. “Before it, they thought we were a useless nation that would crumble if attacked. They changed that view totally.

But his most vivid memories are of the dreadful night his ship, HMS Ardent, went down He recalls the shattering impact of at least 14 bombs striking the ship, the turmoil of fires and explosions and the din of alarms. “In a warship all is calm, even when you are fighting, until you are hit. After that the mayhem and carnage is unbelievable.”

He was brought up not to show a stiff upper lip and, after shedding a tear in an interview once, felt “awful about it”. “My wife said I was different for about three years. For two years I never got through a night without dreaming or thinking about it.